“That’s right, Jake, we need us another man on the job.”
Jake continued, “Now that don’t mean your homework don’t get done right. Ya hear? It means you get your homework done and then get on the rest of your work with us. Understand?” he said, not unpleasantly.
“Sure, Pa!” Jamie exclaimed, not quite able to hide the excitement in his voice.
Janice had breakfast on the table and they all sat down to eat, chatting easily about the day ahead and the weather.
“Jake, I got to run in to town later. Okay if I use your truck?” Mike mentioned, in a matter-of-fact voice.
“Sure thing. Anytime, but don’t put no more gas in her. She ain’t used to having a full tank and I don’t want to spoil her,” he finished with a chuckle.
“Deal, Jake,” he said, picking up his breakfast dishes and taking them over to the sink, on his way out the door.
~*~
Mike made it in to the general store that evening on and as promised, the storekeeper had signed for the package and had it waiting for him. The storekeeper’s curiosity was burning in him, Mike observed, but Mike just thanked him for his trouble and left without giving him the opportunity to satisfy his curiosity.
Mike slipped quietly into the barn with the package and before he even had it open Jake was standing there with the eyes of a child on Christmas morning.
Mike took out the player and loaded it with batteries. As requested, Doc had included an ample supply of batteries and the player looked well used. He explained its use, which was as foreign to Jake as the reading he was trying to comprehend. Jake immediately hooked the player on his belt, put on the earphones and began mouthing the sounds from the tape.
Over the next couple of weeks Mike never saw him without the CD player strapped on. Mike made the veiled comment to the other members of the family that he had loaned Jake the player and some music CDs to pass the time during deliveries.
Each night they would meet in the barn late at night and work on the alphabet and formulation of simple words. Mike was amazed at how quickly Jake was picking things up and wondered to himself what he could have been had the opportunity to go to school not been taken away from him so young.
It was obvious to him that Jake had above-average intelligence, but as Mike knew, intelligence was useless without proper training, and exercise, just as the best rifle in the world couldn’t hit anything if it was improperly aimed.
He now realized that a mind was a terrible thing to waste and that there was more than one way to waste it. Jake had taught him that, or reinforced what he had already figured out.
Mike decided he was going to be sorry to have to leave this family. Jamie especially, he thought. Now that he was sleeping in the house he was practically a part of the family and Jamie took every opportunity to talk with him when others weren’t around. He knew that Jamie saw him as a person he could talk to and ask the questions that all young boys need to have answered. Jake did not have the time with his reading classes, chores, and deliveries.
Yes, he thought, I’ll be sorry to leave this place, and Jamie. Only last night he had a talk with Jamie while Jake was out delivering and Janice and Eloise were working in the chicken house. It was a conversation between a man and a soon to be man, who was questing for the answers to his life.
Jamie had begun, “Mike, what’s it like out there in the world?”
“The world is not out there, Jamie. It’s here and everywhere. You are in the world right now. When you are home and when you are at school.”
“You know what I mean. What’s it like away from here…outside these mountains?”
“Well, it depends upon where you are at the time. I’ve seen a lot of the world outside of this place and every place is different, just like every person is different. It’s a big place and it takes more and more knowledge all the time to get along in it.”
“Ma as much as told me that,” Jamie stated. “She said Pa wanted me and Eloise to learn so that we could go out into the world if we wanted and get along. She said it took a lot of knowing to get along out there.”
“She’s right. Depending upon where you go and what you do, it can take a lot of knowledge to survive.”
“Pa, he ain’t never been outside these mountains, according to Ma. I think maybe he is afraid he can’t get along out there. I don’t like to think of my Pa being a coward,” Jamie ended with a statement that was just one more question for Mike to answer.
“Your Pa ain’t no coward. It’s just that he isn’t comfortable going outside the mountains he knows and loves. Most people fear the unknown more than the known. It’s natural. Everyone is afraid of something at some time or another. You ever meet a man who says he ain’t never been afraid and you steer clear of him. That man is either a liar or a fool.
“A coward is someone who lets his fear keep him from doing what he knows he ought to be doing. A brave man does what he knows he has to do, even though he is afraid. That’s what they mean when they say ‘a coward dies a thousand deaths, but a brave man dies, but once’.
“Your Pa isn’t a coward. If he was, he wouldn’t make those deliveries in the middle of a snowstorm when no other person alive would be out. He doesn’t do it just for the money. He knows the people need that medicine and they have to get it. Your Pa disregards the danger to himself to help them out. A coward wouldn’t do that. A coward would find an excuse for not going and then hate himself the next day.”
“Okay. I see what you mean. I wondered about that cause lots of times I get scared and think maybe I’m a coward.”
“You aren’t a coward just because you get scared, Jamie, as long as you do what you have to do despite your fear. Now don’t confuse fear with caution. Caution is a good thing. There is something inside all of us to warn us of danger and that tends to make us cautious, but you got to control the caution so that it doesn’t turn to fear. Understand?”
“Yes, I do,” Jamie responded and like the young boy he still was, he immediately changed the subject without warning or logic. “Does God always answer prayers?”
Mike thought for a minute and said, “I suppose, Jamie. Can’t say for sure. Friend of mine says he does, but not when you expect and not always at the time you want. Could be it would take years to answer a prayer and the answer might not be recognizable at the time. So my friend says. Don’t know myself.”
Jamie half blurted out and then caught himself, “But Pa ain’t got years….”
“What was that?” Mike asked, knowing what Jamie meant, but not wanting him to know that he understood.
“Nothing. Guess I’d better get my homework done.”
Mike said nothing, but smiled to himself and thought that he was not quite enough of a member of the family to be told everything. Mike liked that. It showed him that Jamie took his family and its trust seriously. A man kept his word and Jamie was growing into enough of a man to recognize that. The fact that a 14-year-old boy recognized that, was a good sign. It showed character and Mike’s first impression was reinforced. There was steel in this boy. Good steel.
But now, as he thought back, he knew his time here was short. December was rapidly approaching and the driver’s test was, too. Jake was picking up his lessons well and Mike had no doubt he would be good enough by the time of the test to read the questions. Not read them fast and well, but good enough. Time and practice would cure the rest. There was no limit to what Jake could learn once he had learned to read. He would stay out the winter, but time was still growing short. Come spring he would no longer have an excuse to stay. His task would have been accomplished and the thought saddened him.
~*~
The day for the license renewal finally arrived. Actually, Jake could have gone to get his renewal at any time after he had gotten his notice, but he delayed it as long as he could to make sure he could read well enough. Mike observed at breakfast that Jake was as nervous as a kid at his first dental appointment and he knew that Jake had been up long before sunup do
ing odds and ends to pass the time.
After breakfast and a few more chores the time had finally come to go to the town up the road, not the one in the valley, the real town. Mike drove for fear that Jake was so nervous he would get another ticket before he got to the driver’s licensing facility.
He walked with Jake into the building and stood beside him as he presented his form to the official. “How long do I have to finish the test?” Jake asked nervously.
The official looked at his form and input his driver’s license number into the computer and asked, “What test?”
“The written test,” Jake said quietly.
The official replied, “You only take a written test when you’ve gotten a ticket since your last renewal. I’m not showing you with any ticket. Your renewal form doesn’t say you need a test. What makes you think you have to take a written test?”
Jake continued, just as quietly, “Cause I gots me a ticket for speed’n last fall. I lost the copy I was supposed to keep. That ain’t a problem is it?”
The official continued, just as calmly as before, “It doesn’t matter, Mr. Sadler, because the computer doesn’t show you got a ticket. It also doesn’t show you have a ticket pending. Did you pay this ticket?”
“Yes. I sent in the copy of the ticket I was supposed to, with my money and got my license back. Took some real scraping to get that there money together, I’m here to tell ya. See, here is my license.”
The official took the license and held it up to the light and said, “you must be mistaken, Mr. Sadler. You’ve never posted this license as bond. If you had there would be staple holes in it where it had been stapled to the court copy of the ticket and there aren’t any holes. You must be remembering a ticket you got before you renewed your license the last time.”
“No, I never got no ticket before,” Jake responded, with a perplexed look on his face.
“You never got a ticket ever,” the man said firmly and continued, “at least, not according to our records and they are what we go by. Where did you send your ticket and money to?”
Jake stopped short and finally said, “don’t rightly know. Didn’t pay no mind to where it was addressed to.”
“What department gave you the ticket and what did the officer look like?” the official asked in a tone that said it was more to sooth Jake than because he really cared.
“State trooper. Don’t recall his name, but he was a big guy. Sort of oldish with longish white hair. About six foot tall I recall and about 180 pounds.”
“Don’t ring no bells with me and I know all the troopers in this district,” the official said and punched some more keys on his computer. “Nothing showing on the computer. You must have been mistaken. Now let me ask you a couple of questions and then after you pay your fee we will take your picture and get you on your way.”
Jake looked at Mike with a resigned look and relief showed evident in his face. Mike just smiled back and wondered to himself how Jake could get and pay a ticket without there being any record of it. Jake might not have been able to read, but he was no dummy. If he said he got a ticket, then he got a ticket, but what happened to it? Mike recalled what a friend once said, maybe his only friend, ever, “God moves in mysterious ways and can do anything with nothing.”
Maybe so, Mike thought, maybe so.
~*~
Despite the fact that Jake had gotten his driver’s license renewed without taking a test, the impetus of the learning did not wane. He went at his studying harder than ever and by late March was reading as well as Eloise, if not Jamie. Motivation was the key to all learning and if ever someone had motivation, Jake had it. He was starved for education and like a man short of food, he gorged himself once it was made available.
By early April the level of his learning was made evident when he came in one evening from his chores. As he walked past Jamie, who was busily writing out a theme paper, he stopped and took a second look. “Jamie, that ain’t how you spell ‘justice’ you better look that one up.”
Jamie was stunned, as was Eloise and Janice, who almost dropped her sewing.
“What do you mean, Pa?” Jamie asked in amazement.
“I mean you need an ‘i’ where you got an ‘a’. Look it up. That’s what your Ma bought you that dictionary for. A job worth doing is a job worth doing right.” Jake finished as he walked on passed to his bedroom and winked at Mike who smiled back knowingly.
Later that night, with pride in his voice, Jake read a story to Eloise. Not a big one, but a story just the same. For the first time he was reading to his children and able to help them with their homework and it was evident from his face that his life was now complete and he could die tomorrow with no complaints.
As happy as Mike was for Jake, he was equally as sad for himself. The time had come. His job was finished and he had to move on. From now on he would only be in the way.
~*~
A few days later Jamie got up early to milk the cow before getting ready for school. He noticed that Mike’s bed was empty and felt sure that he had beat him to the cow. He hurried out to the barn and opened the door with a smile to say good morning to Mike, but he was not there.
He hurried around to the back of the barn to find Mike loading his motorcycle.
“What’s up, Mike?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“Time to go, Jamie. I told you I was just passing through. I’ve stayed longer than I planned already. A lot longer.”
“But….”
“No ‘buts’ Jamie. My job’s done.”
“What job?”
“The job you asked me to do last fall.”
“I never asked you to do nothing.”
“Not in so many words, but it was all over your face. Your Pa can read now and his education will come in time by itself. You can rest easy knowing the secret isn’t necessary anymore.”
“You were the answer to my prayer.”
“If you say so, but I’m just a man passing through. I’m going nowhere and I’m coming from nothing. I’ve no place to go back to, so I just keep going on.”
“On to where?”
“Just on.”
“Will I see you again?”
“Can’t say. It’s a big world, but sometimes it can seem mighty small. I’ve seen people again I never thought I would. I’ve also never seen people again that I thought sure I would and wished I could.”
At that, Jamie noticed a faraway look in Mike’s eyes and he thought he detected a wetness there, too.
“Where exactly you heading, Mike?”
“Wherever. Don’t much matter. I ride where the spirit moves me.”
“What spirit?”
“Just a saying, Jamie. Didn’t mean nothing by it. I just ride where I feel like riding, when I feel like riding. That’s all. So long,” he finished as he climbed on his motorcycle, thumbed the electric starter button and the bike roared to life.
“So long, Mike,” Jamie muttered as he watched Mike wheel the motorcycle around and head down the lane to the hard road below.
The End
To find other titles by Robert James Allison, visit his website at:
www.robertjamesallison.com
Robert James Allison is an attorney who practiced law in Central Illinois for over 25 years. He has since retired from the private practice of law and moved to Louisville, KY. In the 1970s he served in the U.S. Army as a Military Policeman and later was a Captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corp, Army National Guard. Robert draws on his life experiences in his writing and melds his experiences with his characters to give them a realism that draws the reader into their lives.
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